Philip Glass

Philip Glass is that rarest of contemporary 'classical' composers - a musician who has revolutionized the way art music is composed and found a massive audience in doing so. As much a pop and cult phenomenon as he is a descendant of Beethoven, Glass' music has been used in classic films like Koyanisqaatsi and…but it's in his music for solo piano that the essence of his art is revealed. In this groundbreaking album from Sydney pianist Sally Whitwell - the first of its kind ever to be recorded in this country - all of Glass' finest solo piano music is represented. In an additional Australian angle, the Stuart piano is used, its crystalline tones ideally suited to Glass' hypnotically beautiful music.

In 2001, Philip Glass composed the music for the film Naqoyqatsi: Life as War. It was the last film in a trilogy by director Godfrey Reggio that featured only images and music. When the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra invited Glass to be a creative director for its Boundless Series during the 2011-12 season, Glass thought of his cello concerto and its possible life beyond film. The CSO commissioned the Cello Concerto No.2 - Naqoyqatsi and gave the composer the opportunity to have it reborn as a proper concerto. The resulting recording is drawn from the live performances. This dynamic seven-movement work is conducted here by long-time Glass champion Dennis Russell Davies with soloist Matt Haimovitz.

The Concerto Project Vol. II is the second release in Orange Mountain Music’s Concerto Project series and features two world premiere recordings of works by composer Philip Glass. Pianist Paul Barnes performs Piano Concerto No. 2 “After Lewis and Clark” with the Northwest Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ralph Gothóni. The concerto was commissioned in part by the Nebraska Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission in celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the explorers’ journey across the American continent. The three movements are titled “The Vision”, “Sacagawea” and “The Land.” The first and third movements bookend an intimate middle movement that features a traditional Shoshone Indian theme performed on the Native American flute by R. Carlos Nakai. The dynamic flare of the first concerto is contrasted by the album’s second work, Philip Glass’s beautiful Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra. The three movement concerto is performed by harpsichordist Jillon Stoppels Dupree and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ralph Gothóni.

Orange Mountain Music is proud to announce the premiere recording of Philip Glass s Symphony No.11. The new symphony premiered at Carnegie Hall on January 31st 2017 on the occasion of Glass s 80th birthday performed by the Bruckner Orchester Linz under the direction of Dennis Russell Davies. This new recording is a continuation of the relationship between Philip Glass s Orange Mountain Music and the Bruckner Orchester Linz having recorded numerous Glass Symphonies. In composing the piece, Glass was reflecting on his relationship to the orchestra, and writing something that would be a celebratory capstone to Dennis Russell Davies s tenure there as music director from 2002-2017.

The Fourth Volume documenting the concertos by Philip Glass, this volume presents a brand new recording of the composers 2010 commission from the Nederlands Dans Theater, a Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra featuring soloists Tim Fain and Wendy Sutter under the direction of Maestro Jurjen Hempel. The second concerto is the first piano concerto by Glass, the Tirol Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra performed by the Stuttgart Chamber Orchester with Dennis Russell Davies conducting from the keyboard.

'The Concerto Project Vol. III' is the penultimate release in a series of four albums to be issued by Orange Mountain Music documenting the eight Philip Glass concertos to date. Volume III includes Glass's 'Concerto Grosso' commissioned by the City of Bonn for the opening of the Stadtische Kunstmuseum in the German city in 1992. Each movement of the Concerto Grosso is written for a distinctive group of instruments - the winds, brass and strings, which together make up a symphonic ensemble. In this live 1993 recording it is played by the Beethoven Orchester Bonn conducted by long-time Glass associate Dennis Russell Davies, the musicians who premiered the work - under its original title of Concerto for Three Ensembles - in June 1992. The second concerto is Glass's 'Concerto for Saxophone Quartet', performed by its dedicatees, the internationally renowned Raschèr Saxophone Quartet who premiered the piece at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in 1995.

Neil Campbell teams up with Carlo Bowry (Muffin Men/Wizards of Twiddly) and composer/producer Gordon Ross for a release featuring Philip Glass's composition Metamorphosis (beautifully re-arranged as a classical and electric guitar duet), and Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint performed with multiple classical guitars and basses.

This is the first of a series of four CDs that Philip Glass and Orange Mountain Music have planned entitled 'The Concerto Project, No. I-IV' Each disc contains two concerts. Omm0014 features Julian Lloyd Webber with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gerard Schwarz performining 'Concerto for Cello and Orchestra' and Evelyn Glennie and Jonathan Haas performing 'Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra' also with Gerard Schwarz conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. World-class soloists, excellent orchestra, excellent conducting and the beautiful sounding Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool, together with major compositions from the world’s preeminent composer, Philip Glass.

In this recording made at Canada's famous Glenn Gould Studio at the CBC in Toronto, conductor and Philip Glass champion Anne Manson leads pianist Michael Riesman and her own Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in a tour de force performance of Glass's Oscar nominated music from The Hours and a virtuosic performance of Glass's Symphony No.3. Riesman, conductor and pianist on the original soundtrack recording of The Hours, was commissioned in 2002 to create a concert piece based on the score. Glass's third symphony was written in 1995 for the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and is one of the composer's most performed and accessible concert works. This recording shows off the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra's versatility, especially in the quick paced second and fourth movements, as well as the ensembles silky interpretation of the many-layered voices of the third movement, all under the precise direction of Manson.